Hayundai: Pulled from the brink of death

Hey family and friends I am so sorry I wasn't able to send an email last week! We were super busy. So our mission is doing this stupid mission choir thing and my companion is in it so every pday we need to go all the way to headquarters while he practices.. and we need to deal with all the exchanging of other missionaries and it makes my life suck... haha  so I was not able to do it last week.. this week I have to do it all on the phone.. which isn't bad but it is kinda hard to type a lot on the phone.. but that's k.  So this week we met a lot with our investigator his name is Chway Soo Chan...  we met him last week for the first time outside of the streets. And he is getting baptized this Sunday at 9! When we met him he was planning on committing suicide so he wasn't very nice to us but we gave him a name card, and the next day he texted us and said that he tried killing himself last night but before he was able to jump of the bridge someone grabbed him and called the cops. So he went to the hospital. He was there for a bought a month, so while he was there elder Beckett and Elder Kim visited him and gave him a book of Mormon with there testimony written on the inside. So he called us my first week in Hayundai and said he was out. So we met him and gave him a baptism date. We meet with him a lot and he takes it awesome! He is so prepared. He said he used to hate God but know he believes and loves him. We took him to institute and he takes notes in our lessons during church and all the time! He is super fun! He had his baptism interview last night and he passed! So please pray that all goes well! He is going to Seoul this week for the holiday so also pray that all goes well up there! 

Outside of that I went on exchanges with elder Golden (in my my MTC class) and we gave a baptism date to another one of our investigators. His name is Joo  young Ho, his isn't as sure because he not the best at Sunday and church! Haha but we are going to focus on that week and hopefully get him to church! 

Yesterday we had 2 investigators come to church! That was fun! One of them works in China for this person from Utah.. So yesterday that person and his 2 friends from Utah came to our ward. They came down for the Olympics and also one if the Americans had served his mission in Korea a long time ago.. but the other American didn't know Korean so I had to translate for him but one of the talks was about a heart transplant which sucked because I didn't know any of that vocabulary! Haha it was fun though. 

We are meeting a lot of other investigators nd that's fun, I will explain them once they have have baptism dates.. haha sorry no time.

My dad wanted to hear what I do as a Zone Leader.. So here you go .  Honestly I don't do anything... we don't really do much besides giving permissions and going on exchanges.. President Jeoung gave all the power to district leaders and the APs or him self... haha I feel so useless all the time!!🤣🤣 all I do is call me zone members and laugh with them and become friends with them and help motivate them and help them do their best! And I don't even have to do that it's just something I like doing. Or i just boss the district leaders around because they were both in the MTC with me and so we are good friends! But yeah not much outside of that! 

Well I love you all! This week I have been thinking a lot about General conference and how lucky we are to have that! I am making questions and getting ready to receive serious mad revelation! So that's gonna be awesome! We are so lucky to be able to hear the prophets words twice a year! I challenge you all to start preparing know, re-read last year's talks, prayerfully think of questions you want answered and prepare! 

I love you all! Talk to you next week! 

Elder Stagg 

Companions

Living the high life in the Hayundai House

Laborers in the Vineyard

Elder Stagg and Elder Hunch

Where's the second course?

Hayundai: No Time

Hey so this week I have no time! So baiscaly we met a cool guy! He is getting baptized on the 25th! He is cool! He has some depression but this gospel will bless his life alot! I will let you know more next week! Sorry! Love you all!  

Hayundai: Erik the African

Hello! How are you doing? So this week has been super busy. I was told the Zone Leader was a lot easier than being District Leader but so far this week has been super busy for us! Outside of the zone stuff that I have been doing we have also had to been doing work in our area. So let me explain.

On monday we met Erik. Erik is from Africa Rohyanda, and is super sick. He loves laughing and is a super nice guy! His whole family are pastors for other churches but he really like our church because of prophets and he thinks that it just makes sence. Right now he is reading the Book of Mormon and is loving it! We have invited him to get baptized but he sayed he doesnt see why he needs to get baptized again because his father baptized him when he was a kid, we had to be careful to answer that without offending him and his father. So he said he will pray about it and if he gets an answer about the Book of Mormon and Baptism he would love to be a member of our church! He really like how we respect other churches and just because they dont have our same views we don't think the are going to hell. He has lots of potential but right now because of his work he can't come to church. But he is in the middle of changing jobs so he says once he does that he want to come! So hopefully he gets that figured out soon! 

Next is 주영헌 (Joo Young Hun) He is 22 years old and a personal trainer. He loves excersizing and wants to move to England so he wants to learn english. We met with him and talked in English for a bit and then taught him the Restoration and invited him to come to church in which he said that he would. He also accepted to read the Book of Mormon. (He didnt come to church because he had to suddenly help his friend move late saturday night so he was super tired. But he will come next week he said. 

We have more investigators but nothing super special has happend yet so I will talk about them once that happens! 

Recently I have been studying alot about the spirit and Revelation. I have learned a lot about it but the thing that I have read about this week, is that we need to ask for revelation or we wont get it usually. But just because we ask doesnt mean we will get it. In the scriptures is says we need to ask seek and knock.. as I have studied this I think I have figured out why it uses these very similiar phrases all the time.

When we ASK well its pretty obvious we need to use our voices and ask a question or ask for something from someone else. --- So in this case we need to pray and ask our Father in Heaven. 

Next is SEEK. When we seek that is more of a long term thing. We need to do our part to find the answer and let revelation flow through to us. We need to gain knowledge.

And last is KNOCK. This is the one that I have always been the most confused with.. How does knocking have anything to do with revelation? I have always thought it was refering to the parable fo knocking on your neighbors door at night. But no matter what it is refering to the important thing is that it takes ACTION. The knocking part is where we need to trust god and do everything we can to do it and let god do the rest.

I think most people are really good at the first one.'

And then I would say Half make it to the second step.
But I think the 3rd step is the hardest step for most people. This is the one where it takes the most trust and faith, I would argue that this is the hardest step. This is the step that I have struggled the most with and this is the step that I am studying the most. And I have learned a lot about it. To sum up all of what I have learned is this. 

Most people think to hard, they think revelation is more complicated than it is, the expect some big answer to come but they usually dont come. Most of the time they are very small feelings that are usually very similiar to your own feelings, and maybe if you have had no experience with revelation they feel exactly the same to you. But as you follow the good ones and trust, you slowly get better at being able to tell them apart. You will make mistakes sometimes but you always progress. It is exactly like a language. You need to fail or make a mistake to grow, but the important part is the more you just act, trust and have faith the better you get at it!

Ok I love you all and I will talk to you all next week!

-스태그 장로! 

Hayundai: I'm a zone leader

Hey whatsup yall?! So another Transfer has flew by and I now am in my 12th transfer! I am playing with the big boys now! (name the movie) anyways I got transferred to Hayundai, it is the richest part of the mission! It is still in Busan but this place is so filthy rich haha there are so many nice cars and foreigners and huge buildings its crazy for a little country boy like me! I am excited to got spend the next couple months here! Also my companion is 김태훈 Kim Tae Hoon and I will be Zone Leader! So thats exciting mostly because Zone Leaders have more freedom then District Leaders but they have no responsibility! haha Zone Leaders really don't do anything but deal with stats and permissions! haha Also I will finally be in a 4 man house! I have wanted to be in a 4 man house for so long! And I finally have made it! Elder Birrell will stay here. 

So yesterday we were able to spend our last day together with a baptismal service for 2 people! First time I have had more than one person get baptized! These were some of the hardest most stressful baptisms that I have ever had! They are both 8 years old and one is our recent converts son and the other is one of our members nephews. I though they would be so easy because what could go wrong? But they were planned to get baptized 3 months ago but we had to keep pushing it off because they wouldn't come to church so we couldn't teach them or they would come and get in fights with each other so we couldn't teach them. Literally Satan threw everything he had at them and I was pretty sure I was going to leave before the got baptized but we made a hard push at the end and were able to get them baptized! Our recent convert Kim Jong Gook was able to baptize his son which was really cool to see! Its really fulfilling when you see someone you helped get baptized use there priesthood authority to do good to others! After the baptism they were both smiling so much and it makes one feel good! Then I had Elder Birrell baptize the other kid because its a cool experience to baptize someone and he has never done it before! haha But he had to do it 4 times and the branch  president said that it is a new record for youngdo! haha it was the most irreverent baptism I have ever seen! He did it the first time and the kids legs came out of the water, he pulled him up and the kid started screaming (just cause he is super hyper and thats the way he is) and then the other kid that was supposed to get baptized was laughing super hard and kicking his feet in the water, and so Elder Birrell had to do it again, but this time his head didn't go all the way under, and when the kid came out of the water he started running towards the starts but he had to come back and he was just screaming "WHY?!" "WHY?!" With a glare at elder Birrell he walked back over and finally after another try he was able to do it! haha but the whole congregation was laughing and the kids were screaming and laughing.. haha it was crazy! poor Elder Birrell! haha 

Anyways I am loving the mission, I love moments like those where you can see the good that you did in someones life! It makes one feel good! I am going to treasure these memories up for the rest of my life! I strongly urge everyone who is worthy to get there lazy butts up and go on a mission! It is the best thing in the World and you will not regret going!! It is super awesome!! 100% recommendation from me!

Well I will email you next week with an update on my new area companion and calling! 

I also want to start adding more spiritual stuff to my emails so I will work on that next week! Because of transfers I don't have much time to email today!

Love you all!

-Elder Stagg

Just needed something to warm me against the cold wind of communism

Breakfast

3 course dessert

Look mom, no brains.

Beach day

Rush hour

Yongdo: Baptizing my Korean Dad

Sunday I was able to go back to Goejeong (my old area) and perform the baptism of Yoo Jay Young--- My Korean Father! It was such a touching moment in my life that I will never forget it! I have met with this man at least once a week for the past 8 months, usually more than once a week, and the appointments usually lasted 2-3 hours. 85% of that time it involved him showing almost no interest in changing his life or really even even listening to our message yet there I was yesterday standing in my all white clothes and baptizing him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! As I was sitting up on the stand during the talks,  I couldn't help but have the biggest smile on my face.  I was in a branch that I loved,  with people that had loved me and been my friends for 5 months. When I came back to the church I had the biggest and nicest welcome ever! haha. When the 1st councilor saw me (a 70 year old man who is the funniest person ever) he had a look of surprise and ran over and gave me the biggest hug ever!       I was sitting next to a man who I had become so close to and  he was starting down down the path to true happiness! He used to smoke about 3/4 a pack of cigarettes a day, and it was so unhealthy for him, but before we even taught the Word of Wisdom again on Christmas he just decided to stop and hasn't smoked since! This man is super awesome!  I have so much respect for him. 

As I walked down into the water with him, he stopped and looked me in the eyes and in English whispered this to me "Because of you I can stand before God and be clean" and gave me a  firm hug, Holding back tears, I offered the baptism prayer and had the privilege of baptizing him.  It was such a sweet experience. After the baptism he kept saying the "It's been a long journey",  talking about not only the 8 months with me but about the missionaries  who first met him when he was a kid.

When I think about this whole situation and also my convert up in ToungYoung (he investigated the church for 9 months), I can't help but think that God has his timing in everything, and as missionaries we get caught up in stats and goals and numbers that sometimes we don't recognize that God is in charge! We need to be bold and help push them to the right place but we also need to keep in mind that they have their agency and their  timing ---we are just here to help them along the ride! I am going to remember this moment for the rest of my life! Thanks for all of your prayers in behave of Yoo Jay Young! I know it made a difference! 

I love you all and will talk to you next week! (Transfer Week) 

Just the two of us

He's a yankee doodle dandy

I'm too sexy for my badge

My Korean Dad.

Yongdo: Pretty Bomb Testimony

Hello Family and Friends Happy New Year!! It is always weird having to write a different year for the date.. I will still be writing 2017 for the next couple of months because that is just the person that I am! haha Well this week was super awesome! Lets dig into it shall we? 

So recently we have lots of investigators probably around 15. But the thing is most of them don't really have much gospel interest. A big problem here in Korea, is that lots of people will want to meet with us for English or just straight 외국인 (foreigner) Interest, and so sometimes we have lots of investigators but none of them are really progressing. But you can't drop them because in the case of my Korean Father (Yoo Jay Young) and my recent convert in Toung Young they both met with the missionaries for 8 or so months and had no interest for most of it. But as people are with the missionaries for that long of a time they start to change, so we have lots of investigators like that. They are seeds that will sprout later on for some-other missionary. So we have been praying a lot recently to find investigators who have more gospel interest and investigators that we can actually have like real lessons with! 

And this week we found 3 new investigators the first one is such a miracle and I am convinced he will probably get baptized next transfer! So this man about a month ago was walking down the street by our church the same time we were walking home, and he said hello to us( He was very drunk). So we stopped and talked to him and he straight up asked us for the book of Mormon. He said he has lived by the church for years and wants one of the Mormon Bibles. So we gave him one and he started going off about how he knows this book will bless his life and that in this book he can find truth and peace. He was straight up bearing a better testimony then I probably could of done, I felt the spirit so strong. This man has some serious faith. But then he showed us where he lived and said come visit later on. Well we forgot about him kind of until last week I just randomly remembered him and felt like we had to visit him. So we have tried about 8 times there was one time that he was home but was in the middle of a dinner with is sister so he said come back later but then he wasn't there. But finally yesterday, we visited him before church and he didn't answer, visited him after church and he answered! So we went in taught him about the restoration, and he said that he was into Alma already and that he loves the book! He has never before believed in god and he has been Buddhist his whole life, but recently he has been wanting to start to believe in god. So when I asked him if he believed in god he said a truth that I think is very important thing to understand. He said that he has a desire to believe in god but he can't just make a jump from no believe to instant, he said it takes small steps of blindness and trust until you can 100% believe. I was dumbfounded I told him he was exactly right and that he just described faith perfectly! I said it takes you take small steps of faith but soon I promised him that he would have that believe! He committed to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray about the book of Mormon tonight! He is a super awesome guy and just so humble! He has such a pure heart! He is about 50 years old and has a wife and 2 daughters but they live about an hour away from him because he needs to work in youngdo. So he doesn't see them very often. He works for a boating company and he said that he is gone for 1-2 months at a time and back for a month or so then back out on another voyage so it is hard for him to go to church. I told him that god understands and that when he is not on a boat he can go to church but when he is on a boat he can have a personal church, just keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying everyday and god will understand! I am excited for this man! His name is (Ma Gee Johng) 

Next is a man who has some interest, we met him and talked about the book of mormon also committed him to read and pray about it, he said he is going to go fishing and come back and make us some raw fish so I am hyped! He seems pretty cool but his interest levels are in the middle.

Last is a guy who met the missionaries like 20-30 years before. We met with him and he just star ted going off with questions about the  Book of Mormon. He has read the whole thing and was really curious with the actual geography of it and was asking where the first landed and then where was the land Southward and the Land Northward and where were they fighting at, and then he was trying to figure out which of the Indian tribes they were, after we answered his questions he just left.. haha so we are going to try and meet him this week and teach him lesson 3! haha funny guy.  

This week has been awesome!! I am really excited for this next week though, I get to baptize my Korean Father and I honestly never thought I would be able to see him get baptized but I know god has a plan for everything and I now know why I stayed in this same district for so long! It is really cool to see him talk about baptism so causal now and he is becoming really good friends with the investigators in Goejong and the members. Also since he is getting baptized in Goejoeng that means that I get to go back to my old area and baptize someone! haha Really weird! 

This week I interviewed one of the sister investigators and she is super awesome! She is only in 9th grade but she decided to leave her families religion (catholic) and join ours even though there is no one her age at there church! She had a pretty bomb testimony! This transfer our district will have 7 baptisms (if everything goes according to plans) and thats crazy because usually its around 0, but everyone of our teams has or will get at least 1 baptism! God is blessing this area so much! I love it so much! 

I have been studying a lot about revelation recently and I have been getting better at following the spirit! There is 2 things I want to share, First is that we doubt our selves to much, we think receiving revelation is harder then it is. It comes all the time but we doubt it or deny it, we just need to follow it. It is honestly like a language when we dont practice and try we wont get better. In  order to learn Korean I need to make lots of mistakes so I can progress if I don't just try then I will never progress, well it is the same with the spirit we just need to act on our feeling and follow them and as we recognize which ones tend to be of god and which ones are our own thoughts we will get more fluent in the language of the spirit. I want to bear testimony that as we trust god and just act on our feeling we will be lead in his path for us. And this applies to all aspects of live. God says seek ye first the kingdom of god and everything else will be added upon that. As we always seek gods will everything else will fall into place perfectly and better then before. So always be aware and listen to the spirit and practice following it! I love you all so very much! 

This gospel is the true Gospel 

The book of Mormon is super sick and full of crazy truths

I love being a missionary

I Love korea

And I love God!

-Elder Stagg

Making Kimchi on an Industrial Scale

The Kimchi Volunteers

Kimchi!  Kimchi!!  Kimchi!!!

Kimchi for all

Sister missionaries and the clowns

Yongdo: Happy New Years

Hello happy new YEARS!!! I have reached it way before you guys reached it! haha Today for the sunrise we went up to a mountain around Five O clock, and watched the first sunrise over Korea that is a very common culture among Koreans!! haha so that was cool, but now I am very tired! :(

So this week the only thing that I really want to talk about is a man named Yoo Jay Young, This man is super awesome and I have come to be really close with him! I would consider him to be my Korean Father~ haha So I first met this man in April of 2017 when I moved to Goejeong. Ever since then I have been meeting with him. At first I thought he was a lost cause because he never listened to our messages but always wanted to teach us his philosophies. I have taught him at least every lesson but he had no hope or desire to do anything with that, he just liked meeting with me. He said that when he was around 8 years old he had met another missionary and he loved him when he was a kid, but since then he has never met another missionary before. Then one day he said "I heard an american voice say Anyong Haseyo" and that was me! I got his number and met with him. Well long story short I have been meeting with this guy for the past 8 or so months and I don't know what has happened but about a month ago he started to change. He accepted my Church invitation for the first time and has came ever since, and the other day he accepted a baptism date! For January 14! I have been feeling like the reason I have stayed in this area for so long is for him, and that I needed to baptize him before I left, but I didn't know how cause he had no interest. But here I am going to baptize this man that I met 8 months ago! I have grown really close with him and I am super happy  that I have been able to help him come to this choice! 

Outside of that we picked up some awesome investigators and we have a really big pool right now! We are meeting with most of them regularly! A really cool one we got is named Elena. She is fluent in english and wanted to meet for english but we met her yesterday and had a really cool discussion about gospel. She has had a long hard search in her life for religion and has decided that Buddhism is best for her! But she is super nice and fluent in English! So its fun! She is about my moms age and has a daughter my age. 

This week I have been studying about revelation and its real, Super cool stuff! As members of the church we have been giving a gift that we take for granted.  That is the gift of the Holy Ghost! We literally have the power to receive revelation when we need it but most members either don't recognize that or don't use it! So just do it! haha I am trying to use that gift more recently and I have been seeing a bunch of cool miracles! So maybe this stuff is actually true?! who knows! haha 

Love you all!!

Happy New Year!

-스태그 장로

Nightscape

The Committee

Cat on a hot tin roof

Getting back to nature

No such thing as a small town in Korea

Like a bridge over troubled waters

So Beautiful

Yongdo: Final Chirstmas

Merry Christmas everyone! 매리 그리스마스!!!!! This is my last Christmas here in korea! Its crazy to think that I have already done 2 here!! 2017 was my year as a missionary, and its almost over!! Next year in August I will be back home in the dry desert of Utah! haha The mission goes by so fast its insane. 

Well this week was super busy, like usual... We had not a lot of time to meet with our investigators so that was sad. 

So on Tuesday, we had planned on meeting one of our investigators at a restaurant. And in Korean culture the older person usually pays for the food or at least pays for his own... Well we go to a fried chicken place to eat (they are pricy) and we finish and he is not getting up to pay so we kind of sit there confused and he looks at us and says "you are not going to pay" at that point we are like Oh yeah of course we are and then had to pay for his chicken and beer... So that sucked! Also we weren't able to talk much about what we wanted to because we got a call from one of the young  women in the ward saying that she got her mission call and wanted us to come... but it was in an hour and we were at least a half hour bus ride away.. So we quickly ate with our investigator and then took a taxi all the way over there.. to find out that they order a bunch of Domino's pizza! Its never been so hard to eat pizza, haha we were so full from so much chicken! But it was good! She got called to the Seoul South Mission! 

Then on Wednesday,I went on exchanges with Elder Evaga! We did some Jundo(proselyting), and other stuff. We met with Yoo Jay Young(My korean Father) at the Lotte Department Store and went to the top of the roof and it was a super cool view! I have faith that Yoo Jay Young will get baptized! I have a feeling that that is why I have stayed in this district for so long! Haha So I am trying to get him baptized! We then met Kim Dong Gyoo(our investigator) at his restaurant, with his wife! Haha they are so cute together! They have  been married for 30 or so years but they still act like they are in there honey moon stage! I love them! I invited him to take the lessons and he said that he has no time but will continue to slowly read the Book of Mormon.. But I don’t think he is doing that! Haha I decided we will just stop in and say hello and share a small principle! They are super fun! They invited us to there party on Christmas Eve!

And then Thrusday was a super cool day! It started of not awesome but turned out good! We had to clean Chwai Sung Ja’s(on of our members) Waffle shop today and she didn’t show up for like 2 hours so we did companionship study in the freezing cold! Haha poor elder Evaga. Then we hurried home showered and I tried to make some fried chicken! Which was super good I was decently surprised because I just randomly tried to make it and had no idea what I had to do but it turned out pretty good! Then we left to Goejeong to have a baptism Interview. We talked with the investigator for a while then we went in to have the interview! I was super flippen nervous because that is a big thing. I need to decide if this person is ready for baptism or not! Haha but it went really good. I asked him why he met with the missionaries and his story could be in a church magazine! Haha its crazy! He said he didn’t have a religion but his life was kind of hard and he felt like he needed gods love and help in his life. So he said a prayer and asked god to help him. He said that after he sayed the prayer that he heard “Nearer my god to thee” playing in his head, but he had never heard the song before. Really confused he told a friend about it and the friend told him that, that was god answering his prayer and he needed to join his church. He rejected, but a couple days later on the subway he saw Elder Haskell and started talking with him and found out that he is from California, where his son is living, and got really excited! He wanted to learn more about the church and the rest is history! He will be getting baptized on Christmas Eve! Super cool. However in the interview I found out that he had had an abortion 50 years ago.. which came at me by surprise, I told him that because it is such a serious sin, he needs to be interviewed by someone more mature and wise than me, I told him we can set a interview with our mission president hopefully before Sunday! I let him know that he could repent of it and be forgiven and get baptized. I called mission president to see when he could meet, but he told me that because it was so long ago if I just explain why it is a  commandment and let him know that he can repent he can get baptized! So I talked with him about that and it went really well!! Super cool guy! 

On Friday we had a Christmas meeting at the headquarter! Elder Choi (One of the 70's) came down again! It was a good meeting and I learned a lot! Then we ate lunch and had a talent show in which our district got up and did a musical number/dance. It was pretty fun! Then we went to Daesheen to have a baptism interview, but the guy didn’t show up.. So we scheduled it for Saturday. But we have no time! So that’s fun! Then we did Jundo as a district in Nampo! But no one could play guitar for us and so we just gave out book of Mormons as presents. We gave out around 110 book of Mormons! Although we walked a little ways down and picked up like 10 that were thrown on the ground or set down. And we gave them out again! Haha we didn’t get any numbers really but hopefully they will read it and call later! J Then we watched the Light the World video with a guy even though our phone doesn’t work we got him to do it on his own phone! It was cool how strong the spirit always is! Then I talked with elder Youngblood for like an hour! Haha we had some good times back in training! I miss it at times but it was fun! Its fun to think back on those days and how different my mind set is! I have progressed a lot! I love it! 

Saturday started wonderfully… at 12 in the morning… where my wonderfully amazing companion, Elder Birrell, answered a random phone call at midnight.. I woke up to a panicking Elder Birrell throwing a phone with some random speaking Korean to me.. What a wonderful way to wake up! Then tired and confused I talked to this person… I am not really sure what I said because I was still basically sleeping. But Elder Birrell said it went something like call back if you have interest! So I should probably call him back soon! So its pretty cool that I can answer the phone and understand and speak in Korean even when I am still basically sleeping and not knowing what I am doing! That’s a cool point to be at! Sometimes its cool to think that I can speak a whole different language! Then we went to Daesheen where I had a baptism interview with there investigator! He really likes English and is good at it! He refused to speak in Korean during the interview and said he hadn’t repented of his past transgressions, so I explained what that meant and encouraged him to do that tonight! So hopefully he does that but I felt like he could still get baptized! Then Elder Birrell bought a Violin we found on the street, and we bought two guns for presents! One for Yoo Jay Young and one for Bac Myon Ho! Then we had a Christmas party! We had like 5 investigators planning on coming but they all backed out last second but 박명호s wife. It was a really fun meeting, and our branch is super good at singing and stuff like that! Especially 박명호! Me and Elder Birrell did a dance to Mariah Carrey’s All l want for Christmas is you. We did the thing where I am the face and feet and he is the arms. The branch loved it and all gotta good laugh out of it. It was a fun night. It was said that sad that 정대현 and his family were not able to come but they might come to church tomorrow! 

Yesterday we had church, and we watched the Christmas Devotional then had sacrament and that was it! We had Yoo Jay Young and Bac Myong Ho's wife there so that was good! Then we visited some investigators and said Merry Christmas!!

I love Christmas so much especially as a missionary! Its a time where I get to tell the world about the true meaning of Christmas! And that is CHRIST!! This time of the year more people are thinking about Christ and so it is a time we got to capture and use! This has been a fun christmas! I finished the Book of Mormon again yesterday! And every-time that I read it I swear its a new book! Its crazy how that works! I love you all so much! And have a merry Christmas! 

-Elder Stagg

Nothing wrong with a little American-style gift exchange.

Meeting up with a previous companion

Loitering for a cause

Companion abuse is sad

Yongdo: Eating live octopus

I wish you a merry Christmas I wish you a merry Christmas I wish you a merry Christmas and may god bless you! 

Hello everyone! This is an awesome time of year, especially to be a missionary! I love Christmas so much. This week was pretty sad in our stats... but it was an awesome week! 

On Wednesday we went out to eat with a Less Actives husband and a member. They took us to eat Living octopus and raw fish! There was so many different varities of raw sea food! IT was so good! With the living octopus you put the chopped up tentacle into your mouth and it suctions to your mouth and starts moving around! It so weird! You need to fight the octopus in your mouth! Its wild! But it tasted super good! It was the best because Elder Birrell hates seafood! haha

Thursday we had our District Leader Training Meeting again! It was fun to see a bunch of my old companions. Elder Snyder, Elder Youngblood, and Elder Avila! It was a really spiritual meeting and I learned a lot! In the meeting Elder Schupp got up and shared a really good testimony about receiving revelation for us and our districts. I felt the spirit pretty strong and it was a really good testimony. He focused a lot on the fact that we need to really seek for inspiration. After we came home and studied and then we went out and proselyted for a bit and went to meet Kim dong gyoo( One of our investigators who works at a restraunt with his wife) and he was drunk with his brother but we invited him to our Christmas party and showed him the Light the World video. While we were Proselyting I was walking and I kept feeling like I should take with this one guy that was smoking by the hospital, but it would have been really awkward and I kept telling the spirit nah, no, lets no do that, etc. But finally I stopped and talked to him and ended up getting a contact and giving him a Book of Mormon. So super cool! Remember always follow the Spirit! :)

Saturday was a very busy day! We woke up and played soccer with Ryan. After we came home and studied and then went to play soccer with E Sung Hyon (one of the kids we are teaching at church, he has a baptism date for January 7th) at a Elementary school by his house. After we had to meet Yoo Jay Young (My Korean Father) for lunch and then went to English.We had a pretty good turn out at english. After English, Yoo Jay young and Mr Won stayed for 2 hours talking about church, business, and other stuff.. haha so we were able complete our studies during that time. Then we got some Fried Chicken and ate really fast before we had to meet Joe Day Hyon and his family for our family night. The family night went really fun! We played Uno and ate snacks. But during the message the kids wouldn't pay attention and were really noisy, plus he was tired and I didn't feel like it went the way I wanted it to.. :( but that's OK. He asked some good questions and I think he has some potential! I am excited to keep hopefully meeting with him! :) He was asking questions about why we don't believe in just Heaven and Hell, and why we believe in the three kingdoms. Luckily I had just memorized 1 Corinthians 15: 41 in korean. (its talks about the three kingdoms) So I shared that with him and seemed to answer his questions. He didn't seem to have a lot of interest about plan of salvation, he already knew most of it I think. So we are going to try baptism and the Book of Mormon next time! 

Sunday was a super fun day! It started out kind of bad because no one came to church and it was super flippen cold! Haha but then it turned out really awesome! We went to Nampo to do caroling! We brought Brother Pac Myong Ho and he played guitar for us! We were playing down in the subway area and there was a lot of people and it was really cool! Me and Elder Haskell were Giving giving out Book of Mormons that were wrapped up in wrapping paper as presents, with a questions to the soul paper inside of it! Really cool we made a lot of people smile! And gave out 38 Book of Mormons! Also I was handing out little presents my mom gave to me to the kids! We are going to do it again on Friday! Oh and on the way to the Daesheen Church we rode on bus 70...Which was the CHRISTMAS bus! He had this thing decct out with christmas lights and everything! The man was dressed as Santa! We gave him a wrapped up Book of Mormon and said Merry Christmas! He then gave us presents, and as we got of the bus he announced on the intercome that these two young men have the Christmas Spirit about them, and god bless you! He was a really nice and happy guy! Super fun day! Felt the Christmas Spirit! I love being a missionary during Christmas! 

This was a super awesome week! I want to share the message that I shared at district meeting with you guys! I wrote this talk about Christs life as a way to help us remember what he has done for us and what we can do for him in return is to follow his example! 

2017 years ago the Virgin Marry was visited by an angel. The angel said to Mary, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:28)A couple months later, in a cold little manger in Bethlehem, our savior and redeemer of the world entered in to the world. Shepherds came to glorify on high the magnificent event that had just occurred and to worship their soon to be savior. Wise men traveled  from thousands of miles away to meet the babe Jesus and give him gifts of royalty. As the babe grew up Mary and Joseph continuously taught him in the ways of God his father. As Christ grew up, during his child years he would spend his time in the temple talking among scholars and scribes. The topic: his fathers gospel. As just a child the Lord Jesus Christ would confound and amaze everyone that would hear the child's words. As he continuously grew up he just became more and more spiritual and more and more ready for his divine mission appointed to him on high from his father in heaven. Finally the age of 30 Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, started his full time ministry. He called his disciples to be "Fishers of men". Day after day our Savior of the world would spend his time walking around in the blistering hot sun of the middle east, finding and teaching people about eternal life and salvation through Faith and Love. 

"Love one another even as I have loved you"(John 13:34). 

"Ye are the light of the World, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven"(mathew 5:14-16).

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mathew 11:28). 

Among the countless sermons and parables our Lord Jesus Christ gave, he still found time to do the countless acts of service and love that he he miraculously performed. From healing lepers (Mathew 8:2-3), Paralytics and sinners (Mathew 9:2-6) to the blind seeing, and the lame walking (Mathew 21: 14) the Deaf heard (Mark 9: 25) and the Dead lived again. The Lord Jesus Christ, our king on high, didn't spend his time thinking of himself or looking inwards, he spent all of his time, thoughts and energy on others. Healing the sick, forgiving sins, serving others, teaching about salvation, and so on.

However he was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isiah 53: 3-5)    

After being betrayed by one of his own disciples, he willingly took upon himself the pains and sins of the world. Crying out to the father 

"Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt". 

Upon finishing the most painful thing a mortal has ever experienced he came out to find his beloved Apostles asleep not even able to wait for him. Only moments later Judas his apostle, with an army of Roman Soldiers, approaches and mockingly kisses our savior on the cheek. Bound up and beat, he is taken to be tried by an illegal court. Spitten upon and humiliated he is sentenced to death. Trial after trial, he is moved from one city to the next, everywhere he goes people mocking, spitting, and beating, until he is sentenced, by his own chosen people, to death upon the cross. Stripped and humiliated he is scourged. In agony and pain the Roman guards mockingly worship him and put a crown of thorns upon his head. Weak and exhausted but still needing to bear the weight of his cross he is forced to walk to his death. Nailed to the cross that sat on Calvary, he cried out to the father "Forgive them for the know not what they do" (Luke 23: 34) 

Up until the last moments of his life he is always looking outwards. Even as he was beaten, mocked, and whipped for doing the work that was given to him by his father, only striving to serve with love and care, he was rejected and mocked. This Christmas season lets do our best to remember our Savior and try and share his light! Each one of you have the light of Christ about you. That is a gift we all received when we entered into the world. Do your best to nourish and grow the light and use it to brighten other people up!! I love you all! And I love this work! I am so blessed to be able to be a missionary for my Lord and Redeemer during the CHRISTmas holiday!

Merry CHRISTmas

-스태그 장로

It's a Christmas miracle

But it's not nearly enough for two people

Just hanging with the homies.

Yongdo: Happy Birthday Mom

HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? HELLO>>> ITS ME>>> I THINK THAT TIME IS GOING VERY< VERY VERY VERY FAST I SAID HELLO>>> ITS ME.............

SO this has been a fantastic week!! The miracles that we have seen this week have been wow!! super awesome! First off we picked up 2 new family investigators this week and one of them specifically is super awesome!! :) I already love them! they are super awesome, the fathers name is 조대현 (Joe day hyon) and he has 2 kids, one is a 7 year old girl, who is the most adorable thing ever (she reminds me of arianna)  and the other is a 12 year old son! They came to our English class after I called them and then on Saturday they took us out to eat at a Sushi Buffet. We called them up yesterday and set up a weekly family home evening with them! I am excited for them! They are really cool.

The other family is someone we met on the street, he invited us to his restaurant where we met his wife and friends. They invited us to come back later and eat for free! So we went back 3 days later and ate and talked with them, he has a book of Mormon and said he would read it. They have a 19 year old daughter, 16 year old daughter, and a 13 year old son. Super cool people!

Cool miracle from this week, so back 7 months ago when I was in Goejeong. I met a man name (Yoo Jay Young) I have been meeting with him for the past 7 months, at first we taught him all the lessons he just didn't want to change, but he took kind of a fatherly love towards me. He calls me his american son and he is my korean father. He is a super awesome man and I have grown very close with him, well yesterday he finally came to church!! I was so happy. I don't know whats been happening but recently he has been changing a lot. The spirit is working in him a lot right now! Hopefully he will get baptized soon! 

We have a lot of other investigators right now that we are teaching (13) but these are the most potential and exciting ones right now! 

On Thursday we had the opportunity to make kimchi!! It took about 8 hours and we made at least 1000lbs of kimchi!! I am not joking! There were probably 30-40 people there and we busted this kimchi out! HAHA it was really fun. 

Transfers came and went on nothing changed here in the Youngdo area! The only person that changed in our district is Sister Jaggi, and her companion got called as a trainer. So now my whole district is training! haha super fun!! 

I love this work and I love you all! 

P.S Wish my Momma and Sista a happy happy birthday!! :)

Stay on the straight and narrow path

-스태그 장로

I cant believe I forgot my shoes!

I'd like to buy a vowel.